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KEY WEST
Old box's booty turns out to be bountiful
Treasure hunters got their answer as to what was inside a lead box they found off of Key West.
By CAMMY CLARK
[email protected]
CAMMY CLARK/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Archeologists estimate 'several thousands' of pearls were found inside the mystery box that recently was found buried from the 1622 Santa Margarita shipwreck.
Video | Divers discover a treasure in gold on Keys wreck
KEY WEST -- The small box buried nearly four centuries with the wreck of a Spanish galleon was gently pried open Friday afternoon.
Its mystery contents were sifted out of the silt:
Pearls -- at least a thousand, mostly silver and black -- lay inside. Some were tiny, some were big, and one was huge -- ¾ of an inch wide.
Cheers erupted as archaeologist James Sinclair showed them off in the packed conservatory laboratory at Mel Fisher's Treasures in Key West. Video cameras recorded the moment, with many of the 50 people taking pictures with cameras and cellphones.
''This is a stunning collection of Baroque sea pearls probably originating off the island of Margarita down off Venezuela,'' Sinclair said.
The lead box was part of a major discovery Sunday and Monday by the crew of the Blue Water Rose. They also found gold chains, rings and gold ornate objects valued at about $1 million and nearly 1,000 priceless artifacts.
But this find is just a small portion of the cargo lost when the Santa Margarita was sunk by a hurricane off the Marquesas Keys in 1622, as she was sailing back to Spain as part of the Tierra Firme fleet.
It wasn't until 1980 that the late Mel Fisher discovered remnants of the ship, strewn over a seven-mile trail only 200 feet wide about 40 miles west of Key West.
He also had discovered $400 million worth of treasure from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, sister ship to the Santa Margarita.
But it was the lead box -- a mere 5 ½-by-3 ½-by-2 ½ inches -- that held the mystery for the treasure hunters on Friday.
Because it was encrusted with four centuries of sea life, the box and its contents were soaked in salt water until archaeologists could work on it.
Boat captain Greg Bounds and the rest of the crew had tried to peek into a crack on the bottom to see what was inside. They held it up to the sun but still could see only darkness.
They were pretty certain the contents would be valuable when two pearls fell out.
''I figured there would be more pearls; I just didn't think there would be that many,'' said Sean Fisher, Mel Fisher's grandson, who excitedly took some of the pearls down to the gift shop to show tourists.
Fisher and Sinclair were surprised the pearls were in such good condition.
''This is very rare, because pearls don't normally survive in the ocean very well,'' Sinclair said.
``Once they lose the protection of the oysters that make them, they tend to deteriorate very rapidly.
``So in this instance we have a lead box and silt that sifted into the box to preserve the pearls in almost a pristine state. They still have their nacre and sheen on them that are pretty important things.''
Sinclair estimated the value at ``hundreds of thousands [of dollars] if not more.''
The pearls also were very valuable in 1622 -- so valuable they were not reported on the ship's manifest.
''He might have just had this box stuck in his own personal ditty bag,'' Sinclair said of the unknown owner.
Or as Sean Fisher put it: ``Absolutely, it was being smuggled. The owner didn't want to pay the king of Spain's 20 percent tax.''
Archaeologist Duncan Mathewson said he believes the box likely came from the ship's stern castle, the living quarters high off the main deck where wealthy passengers usually stayed.
The combination of pearls, gold, scissors and tools that were found together suggests the owner could have been a goldsmith who was working on an ornamental belt, Mathewson said.
''Now we can try to track down who on board the boat might have been a goldsmith,'' he said.
Bounds said the box was found under about two feet of sand, 20 feet below the water's surface.
The pearls originally were plucked from probably 100 feet or more below the surface, collected by Indian pearl divers who could hold their breaths for several minutes, Mathewson said.
Mathewson said some of those same divers likely were used in 1626-1630 to try to salvage the cargo from the sunken Santa Margarita.
The modern-day salvage crew will return in the next few days to the same site to continue the search.
''This is what keeps us going,'' Bounds said.
``It's the hardest job I've ever had in my life. But we know there's a lot more to find.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/141720.html
kenb
KEY WEST
Old box's booty turns out to be bountiful
Treasure hunters got their answer as to what was inside a lead box they found off of Key West.
By CAMMY CLARK
[email protected]
CAMMY CLARK/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Archeologists estimate 'several thousands' of pearls were found inside the mystery box that recently was found buried from the 1622 Santa Margarita shipwreck.
Video | Divers discover a treasure in gold on Keys wreck
KEY WEST -- The small box buried nearly four centuries with the wreck of a Spanish galleon was gently pried open Friday afternoon.
Its mystery contents were sifted out of the silt:
Pearls -- at least a thousand, mostly silver and black -- lay inside. Some were tiny, some were big, and one was huge -- ¾ of an inch wide.
Cheers erupted as archaeologist James Sinclair showed them off in the packed conservatory laboratory at Mel Fisher's Treasures in Key West. Video cameras recorded the moment, with many of the 50 people taking pictures with cameras and cellphones.
''This is a stunning collection of Baroque sea pearls probably originating off the island of Margarita down off Venezuela,'' Sinclair said.
The lead box was part of a major discovery Sunday and Monday by the crew of the Blue Water Rose. They also found gold chains, rings and gold ornate objects valued at about $1 million and nearly 1,000 priceless artifacts.
But this find is just a small portion of the cargo lost when the Santa Margarita was sunk by a hurricane off the Marquesas Keys in 1622, as she was sailing back to Spain as part of the Tierra Firme fleet.
It wasn't until 1980 that the late Mel Fisher discovered remnants of the ship, strewn over a seven-mile trail only 200 feet wide about 40 miles west of Key West.
He also had discovered $400 million worth of treasure from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, sister ship to the Santa Margarita.
But it was the lead box -- a mere 5 ½-by-3 ½-by-2 ½ inches -- that held the mystery for the treasure hunters on Friday.
Because it was encrusted with four centuries of sea life, the box and its contents were soaked in salt water until archaeologists could work on it.
Boat captain Greg Bounds and the rest of the crew had tried to peek into a crack on the bottom to see what was inside. They held it up to the sun but still could see only darkness.
They were pretty certain the contents would be valuable when two pearls fell out.
''I figured there would be more pearls; I just didn't think there would be that many,'' said Sean Fisher, Mel Fisher's grandson, who excitedly took some of the pearls down to the gift shop to show tourists.
Fisher and Sinclair were surprised the pearls were in such good condition.
''This is very rare, because pearls don't normally survive in the ocean very well,'' Sinclair said.
``Once they lose the protection of the oysters that make them, they tend to deteriorate very rapidly.
``So in this instance we have a lead box and silt that sifted into the box to preserve the pearls in almost a pristine state. They still have their nacre and sheen on them that are pretty important things.''
Sinclair estimated the value at ``hundreds of thousands [of dollars] if not more.''
The pearls also were very valuable in 1622 -- so valuable they were not reported on the ship's manifest.
''He might have just had this box stuck in his own personal ditty bag,'' Sinclair said of the unknown owner.
Or as Sean Fisher put it: ``Absolutely, it was being smuggled. The owner didn't want to pay the king of Spain's 20 percent tax.''
Archaeologist Duncan Mathewson said he believes the box likely came from the ship's stern castle, the living quarters high off the main deck where wealthy passengers usually stayed.
The combination of pearls, gold, scissors and tools that were found together suggests the owner could have been a goldsmith who was working on an ornamental belt, Mathewson said.
''Now we can try to track down who on board the boat might have been a goldsmith,'' he said.
Bounds said the box was found under about two feet of sand, 20 feet below the water's surface.
The pearls originally were plucked from probably 100 feet or more below the surface, collected by Indian pearl divers who could hold their breaths for several minutes, Mathewson said.
Mathewson said some of those same divers likely were used in 1626-1630 to try to salvage the cargo from the sunken Santa Margarita.
The modern-day salvage crew will return in the next few days to the same site to continue the search.
''This is what keeps us going,'' Bounds said.
``It's the hardest job I've ever had in my life. But we know there's a lot more to find.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/141720.html
kenb
